Direct Catering Project
Internet Application Development:
To develop a full-service search engine for event planners.
Executive Summary:
DirectCatering.com, founded in 1999, wanted to provide an Internet-based marketing tool for caterers, nation-wide. InSync was contracted to bring their vision to fruition.
Their objective was twofold:
- To create a search engine that would be a reliable resource for Internet users to plan events.
- And to offer caterers and other vendors an opportunity to promote their services.
Initially, they offered only catering services, but inSync expanded their search engine capabilities to include:
Catering
Disc Jockey
Limousine
Rentals
Photo/Videographer
With these new capabilities, DirectCatering.com has given a greater variety of vendors the ability to promote their businesses on-line. Their site is drawing over 1,000,000 users each year searching for event services.
Customer Profile:
DirectCatering.com was founded by life long friends, Jeff deMarini and Marshal Vogt. Both graduates of Arizona State University, Jeff and Marshal began their careers by starting a small catering company within 6 months of their graduation. Their business savvy was quickly noticed when they teamed up with a prominent software developer to design a custom order entry system for their catering company.
To kick off the New Year of 2002, Jeff and Marshal expanded DirectCatering.com to cover all event related services. Visitors are now able to plan their entire event from DirectCatering.com's site. Constantly striving for improvement, Jeff and Marshal are convinced that becoming a total event provider is the best direction for the future of DirectCatering.com.
How inSync Computer Solutions Helped:
DirectCatering.com’s search engine was designed by inSync to allow visitors to quickly search for companies in their area. Users select a "Service Type," enter a "City/State" then click GO to run a search. Results of the search will display the names of those companies who meet the search criteria, along with a brief company description. When clicked, displayed company names will link the user directly to a company profile.
The search engine offers visitors a convenient way of locating event providers for any size event. With over 1,000,000 visitors per year, DirectCatering.com has become a top resource for people planning events throughout the U.S. By providing access to top event service companies, DirectCatering.com is helping to make online event planning a success.
Their Search Engine was developed to work as follows:
- Visitors indicate the desired service.
- They then indicate the city and state where the service is needed and click "go."
- Matching companies will be displayed in accordance with their listing type.
- Along with the company name, a brief company description will appear for review by the prospective clients.
- To view further details, the visitor can click a company name to view a detailed profile page. The "ProfilePage" will display specific information about the selected company such as services offered, contact information and hours of operation.
inSync also created the ability for the vendors to advertise on the site. DirectCatering.com wanted three different ways for vendors to be able to advertise on their site. They were as follows:
Banner Listing
Signing up for a banner listing will place your company banner and description in the top group of listings.Preferred Listing
Signing up for a preferred listing will place your company name and description in the second group of listings.Free Listing
Signing up for a free listing will place your company name and description in the third group of results.
The fees associated with the Search Engine are performance based “click” only which gives the vendor the ability to only pay for results. Search results are generated using a mathematical algorithm. Each time a search is run for the same parameters, users will experience a different set of results within each group. All banner listings will appear first, then the Preferred listings and then the Free listings.
The fees are collected in one of two ways – online via a credit card or the vendor can send a check. As leads are generated, the accounts are automatically debited. The vendor can manage their account by viewing the status online. The DirectCatering.com system also has a full set of maintenance pages that allow vendors to maintain and update their company information. It also gives them much needed flexibility for those vendors that have multiple sites in different states and multiple services.
inSync’s programming team used Java and JSP with an Oracle RDBMS database engine to build the site. The Directcatering.com staff also has the capability of independently monitoring and maintaining their site.
The site currently supports 1,000,000 users and develops hundreds of leads a day with a database of over 15,000 vendors nationwide.
